Disinfectant was a popular antivirus software program for the

classic Mac OS Mac OS (originally System Software; retronym: Classic Mac OS) is the series of operating systems developed for the Macintosh family of personal computers by Apple Computer from 1984 to 2001, starting with System 1 and ending with Mac OS 9. The ...

. It was originally released as freeware by John Norstad in the spring of 1989. Disinfectant featured a system extension that would detect virus infections and an application with which users could scan for and remove viruses. New versions of Disinfectant were subsequently released to detect additional viruses.

Bob LeVitus Bob LeVitus (also known as ''Dr. Mac'') is an American author of more than 75 computer-related books, particularly on the Apple Macintosh, iPhone, and iPad for the book series '' ...For Dummies''. He has been a columnist for the ''Houston Chronicl ...

praised and recommended Disinfectant in 1992. In May 1998, Norstad retired Disinfectant, citing the new danger posed by

macro virus In computing terminology, a macro virus is a virus that is written in a macro language: a programming language which is embedded inside a software application (e.g., word processors and spreadsheet applications). Some applications, such as Micr ...

es, which Disinfectant did not detect, and the inability of a single individual to maintain a program that caught all of them.

References

Antivirus software Macintosh-only software 1989 software {{malware-stub